Rahm Emanuel is the new Scott Walker: a cold, heartless politician refusing to give an inch to the unions who are just fighting for the rights of their workers. Why, just look at how unreasonable the Rahmster is being:

Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel told Bloomberg News that the district was ready to offer a 16% raise over four years after taking away a 4% raise from teachers last year. The union originally wanted a 29% increase over two years, citing school days that Emanuel has lengthened by 90 minutes. The district has reportedly been offering 2% annual cost-of-living increases in return.

The optics of this strike are gruesome for Democrats: You’ve got the best paid teachers in the country, who already take home nearly $30,000 per year more on average than the average Chicago family, walking out on kids in Obama’s own hometown even though a friendly Democratic face in Rahm Emanuel is on the other side of the table. It’s an object lesson in union ruthlessness, and Rahm’s going to have no choice but to dig in lest he illustrate just what the GOP has in mind when it talks about Democrats having been captured by Big Labor. The question is how heavily this might weigh on voters.

We stand with the children and we stand with the families and the parents of Chicago because education reform, that’s a bipartisan issue. This does not have to divide the two parties. And so, we were going to ask, where does President Obama stand? Does he stand with his former Chief of Staff Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the children and the parents, or does he stand with the union?